Emergency Declared in 10 Municipalities as Over 13,000 Households Remain Without Power

Ice-Snow Emergency Declared in 11 Municipalities

A state of emergency has been declared in 10 local municipalities in Serbia due to disruptions in electricity supply and rising water levels, while more than 13,000 households remain without power.

During a Jan. 12 emergency session of Serbia’s National Emergency Management Headquarters, binding conclusions were adopted for relevant ministries and institutions to ensure a more effective response, particularly with regard to restoring regular electricity supply and keeping roads open. Local authorities were also urged to create an inventory of damage suffered by citizens.

The state of emergency remains in effect in Lucani, Loznica, Valjevo, Osecina, Mali Zvornik, Krupanj, Prijepolje, Majdanpek, Ivanjica and Sjenica, while it has been lifted in Vladimirci.

Serbia’s Minister of Economy Adrijana Mesarovic said the country’s electricity supply was stable and that 0.35% of consumers were currently without power, more specifically - 13,603 households - promising the service would be restored by the end of the day or tomorrow, at the latest.

Mesarovic said “100% of outages on power lines were caused exclusively by falling trees,” and that there were no other failures on the electricity grid, apart from a fire at a transformer station in Belgrade’s Banovo Brdo neighborhood.

Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure Aleksandra Sofronijevic said at the session that all first-category state roads were open and safe for traffic. She added that the ministry issued a decision setting the maximum speed limit at 60 kilometers per hour on first-category state roads, and 40 kilometers per hour on all other roads.